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Vienna with San Franciscan Eyes 3/5 – the one with the statues

Dear friends,

the TV incident triggered a dire need in your visual flaneur to balance the profane with something more substantial. Hence I went for a walk ready to poke my nose into matters. What would grab my attention long enough to draw it ?

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St. Stephen’s cathedral did. Its gothic aisle is framed with delicate stone columns which seem to reach up all the way to heaven. Innumerable statues, some majestic even more tucked away in their little corners, exhale their aura of divine enlightenment, patient suffering and ubiquitous mortality.

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I sat down on a bench and lost myself taking visual notes of these captivating ornaments. When I moved on, I felt that this visit to St. Stephen’s had primed me – I now saw statues of angels and demons scattered throughout the city. On street corners, in hallways, engraved in door knobs even. If you look they really are everywhere !

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Another whim lead me into the courtyard of the old university where I stumbled onto more statues. This time an array of honorable academics of days gone by, now all lined up in stone. I could not help but chuckle at the facial hair these men feature. Their sizes and shapes eclipse the most daring hipsters of our times…

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2 more of this series to come before we’ll shake it up a little. See you soon!